InGoodFaith wrote:As much as I want to post the picture from the last page here again, I'll play nice.
Define reasonable.
Thank you. I feel like we just bonded there, but maybe that's going a bit too far.
I'm sorry, here. But I don't have any quotes, or even anecdotes to prove my point. I know what I've read, and I have used that to create a sense of what BigLaw is in general. Again, this is very weak, I know. But it just seems that BigLaw partners are wretched old men and they just want to use their associates to make money for the firm over showing camaraderie and professionalism. I mean... it is a "profession". It's a league, and group, and elite... etc. But I think part of that should rise about dollars and be about growing as people and also making money. When I read stories about all of the BigLaw associates who get laid off because there are only so many spots and partner and you either become partner or you get the can, well, that just sounds unreasonable.
Okay, I went and found some things to share just so you all wouldn't hate me for wasting your time by being vague. (I don't like vague people, either, honestly.)
Three Posts From JD Underground that Scared Me:
(1)
"Reading your post makes me oh-so-happy to be out of that line of work where leaving at 6:30 and prioritizing anything outside of the 55 hour work week is frowned upon. Bullshit. You'll never get these portions of your life back. Now I have a growing family and the time to enjoy them. I liked lawyering, but big law can go fuck itself. Most unhappy upper middle class cohort I've ever had the displeasure of being part of. I suppose if I were still active I'd have run for judge this year."
(2)
"In ordinary economic times, the vast majority of junior associates who get fired just clearly don't get it or can't cut it. "Don't get it" people fall into a few categories. Arrogance (junior BIGLAW requires humility), gross lack of professional polish, or failure to be the schedule (facetime till 8 pm M-Th, availability all hours of nights and weekends). Can't cut it is just not smart or verbal enough, or careful enough.
"By your middle years, moderate incompetence singles people out, as does lack of partner sponsorship, bad choice of practice group propelling bad hours ... but also mercy killings. Some extremely smart and hardworking just aren't wired right for BIGLAW partnership and a lot of people feel that firing them is better than letting them keep killing themselves to meet hour quotas with passable work."
(3)
"That said, you still have to do something fairly egregious, in my experience, to get fired before you are a 4th year or so. After that people get cut all the time because there just aren't enough partnership slots. You only need to many senior associates (though good senior associates, ones who have a chance to make partner, are worth their weight in gold.)"
Okay, so in (1) and (2), I don't like how staying at the firm until 8:00p.m., four days a week in one example, seems to be... the norm? Even worse, you leave before 6:00 to go spend time with your family and friends, and you get looked down upon? As if that is something to look down upon. This just paints a bad picture of the sort of people who it seems you will need to be pleasing.
In (3), I really didn't like that, even if you are smart, work hard, and are sociable, you may still get the boot just because there are only so many slots to fill are partner in a BigLaw firm. WTF? Really? After all those years of hard work and sacrifice, and you just boot them out because there aren't enough slots to become partner? That sounds unreasonable. I could only hope that lateral transfer is a breeze, but I doubt that.
